Chapter 83: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 83

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

She was busy until noon before finishing all the inspections.

She wolfed down lunch quickly, then endured another long and agonizing wait.

Around three in the afternoon, the test results came out.

The nurse brought over a thick stack of examination reports and handed them to Li Yaozu.

Li Yaozu, Li Jiahao, and Li Xiulan could not make much sense of what was written on the reports.

After asking the nurse, she said that none of the indicators on the report looked good, and as for the specifics, she could not say either, telling them to ask the attending physician.

Around five in the afternoon.

The expert doctor came over.

He told Li Xiulan, Li Yaozu, and Li Jiahao that he had reviewed the preoperative reports, had already arranged the surgery, and that it could be performed tomorrow morning; before surgery, the patient must fast, so the patient must not eat anything after ten o'clock tonight.

That night, Li Xiulan and her two brothers still spent the night in the hospital corridor.

After being busy all day, they were truly exhausted.

Li Xiulan was so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes open, so she fell asleep.

The next morning, hearing the sound of nurses moving about in the corridor, Li Xiulan finally woke up.

The nurse came to inquire about Li Xiulan's mother's condition, confirmed there was nothing abnormal, then had someone push the hospital bed to the operating room.

Li Xiulan, Li Yaozu, and Li Jiahao waited outside.

The surgery took a long time.

A long and agonizing wait.

Until noon, their mother still had not come out.

Li Jiahao went outside and bought several steamed buns back.

Li Xiulan had no appetite and did not want to eat.

She only wanted her mother to come out quickly.

Finally, past two in the afternoon.

Their mother was finally pushed out of the operating room.

The doctor told them the tumor had been removed, but removal was not a cure-all; chemotherapy would still be needed afterward.

"Doctor, how much does chemotherapy cost?"

Li Jiahao asked hurriedly.

There was some despair on his face.

Because of this surgery, he and his brother had already spent all their savings, and part of the money had been borrowed from relatives and friends.

"That's hard to say; it might cost over ten thousand, depending on how many chemotherapy sessions are needed. If the chemotherapy works well, it will cost a bit less; if it does not work well, other treatment methods will have to be used, which will cost more money; if imported medicine is used, it might cost even more."

The doctor informed them honestly.

Now not only was Li Jiahao's face filled with despair, but Li Yaozu and Li Xiulan also showed despair on their faces.

They were all rural people with little education, and previously they had naively thought that as long as the cancerous tumor was removed, the treatment would be complete, and afterward they would not need to spend much more money!

Little did they know that for cancer treatment, surgical removal was only the beginning; the use of various anti-cancer drugs afterward was where the real money was burned.

Not only did it burn money, but it also made the patient suffer, and the family members would be tormented along with them.

That night, the three siblings Li Yaozu, Li Jiahao, and Li Xiulan did not sleep.

They kept watch by their mother's hospital bed.

Their mother had not woken up after the surgery; various tubes were inserted into her body, and she wore a ventilator over her mouth.

The three siblings were all in low spirits.

"For the chemotherapy afterward, I really can't come up with the money."

Li Jiahao said this with a face full of dejection.

"I can't come up with money either."

Li Yaozu was equally dejected.

Li Xiulan fell silent.

Because she could not come up with much money either.

When they were hospitalized before, they had prepaid twenty thousand yuan in fees.

Before the surgery afterward, they paid another ten thousand-plus yuan in fees.

They had already spent over thirty thousand yuan and truly had no money left.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

Their mother had not fully recovered yet, but she was making a fuss about being discharged.

The old woman also knew that to treat her illness, the family money had already been spent.

Li Xiulan and her two brothers did not stop her.

Because staying longer would require spending additional money.

And they already had little money left.

So they handled the discharge procedures for their mother.

Then they took their mother back to their hometown.

When they came, they hired a minivan.

But when returning, they couldn't even afford the charter fee.

They had no choice but to take the intercity bus.

First from the city back to the county town, then transfer at the county town back to the town, and finally still needed to transfer at the town to return to the village.

From morning to evening, rushing about all the way.

This kind of ordeal, even Li Xiulan and Li Yaozu and Li Jiahao could barely endure, let alone their originally frail mother.

Li Xiulan watched her mother's trembling appearance, feeling very heartbroken, yet powerless to change anything.

To avoid giving her children too much psychological pressure, Mother kept saying she was fine, saying she was still very well.

But everyone could see she was already very weak.

With great difficulty they finally returned to their hometown.

Mother ran a high fever that very night, and only got better after taking quite a lot of fever medicine.

The next morning, Mother urged Li Xiulan to go back to her own home.

Li Xiulan had been out this many days, leaving only three children at home, afraid something would happen to the children.

Li Xiulan was also somewhat worried in her heart.

So after bidding farewell to Mother, she hurriedly rushed home.

This trip taking Mother to the city for treatment, altogether took seven days.

Li Xiulan, carrying a worried mood, went to the town to catch a ride back to Shanggou Village.

Because today wasn't market day, very few vehicles went to Shanggou Village, so it delayed quite a lot of time; Li Xiulan didn't return to Shanggou Village until twelve noon.

She was really very worried about her three sons.

The three sons were all still very young, afraid they'd be hungry, or even have some accident at home.

When she returned to the village entrance, Li Xiulan discovered her three sons were actually inside the village entrance convenience store, eating lunch together with Li Yunxia.

The three children were all doing very well.

This surprised Li Xiulan greatly; she hadn't expected her three sons to actually be freeloading a meal at someone else's house.

At the same time, her hanging heart finally settled down.

As long as the children were still fine, nothing else mattered.

"Sister-in-law Xiulan, you're back!"

Seeing Li Xiulan return, Li Yunxia greeted her, raising her chopsticks.

The three children hurriedly turned back, calling "Mom."

Li Xiulan walked into the convenience store:

"Why are you eating here? Why not cook at home yourselves?"

Before the three children could answer, Li Yunxia spoke:

"Don't blame them, they're still so small, they don't even know how to tend a fire well, cooking isn't easy for them; I saw they were pitiful, so I took the initiative to call them over to eat, they've been eating here for several days now!"

Li Xiulan hurriedly thanked her:

"Yunxia, that's really too thank you, didn't expect you're such a good person, this kindness, I don't know how to repay!"

Li Xiulan hadn't expected that the usually sharp-tongued Li Yunxia would this time actually be so kind-hearted, proactively giving her three children food to eat.

"Don't say those polite words, it's just a few more pairs of chopsticks, no need to repay me anything; by the way, how's your maternal home side?"

Li Yunxia asked with concern.

Li Xiulan told the truth:

"Not good, the surgery used up all the money, but the doctor said chemo is still needed later; now Mother's back at the hometown, chemo probably can't be done."

Li Yunxia sighed, comforted:

"You also don't be too sad, let nature take its course; when people reach a certain age, birth aging sickness death are all normal; have you eaten lunch? I'll get you a set of bowl and chopsticks, sit down and eat together!"

Speaking, Li Yunxia enthusiastically went to fetch bowl and chopsticks.

Li Xiulan was deeply moved:

"Yunxia, thank you!"

From Li Yunxia, Li Xiulan felt an unprecedented warmth.

That kind of warmth she hadn't felt for a very long time.